Australia is an "old" continent. Our mountains rose up and then were scraped down by series' of glaciers. So our mountains are not very high, and the ones that get useful snow run in a line down the south east of Australia. They start in New South Wales and continue down into Victoria. There are five big resorts, and a number of smaller ones. Snowmaking is becoming more and more important in our marginal and fragile ski seasons, and generally the official opening, which is the Queen's Birthday long weekend in June, sees the snowmakers very busy beforehand. August is the prime month for weather and snow depths.

Interestingly, not many people realise that it can snow in any month, and often does. I have frequently been up in Kosciuszko national park doing some walking in the summer and been snowed-on. Our snow tends to be much wetter and heavier than that in other countries. Foreign instructors I've worked with declare that if you can ski our heavy stuff interspersed with ice, you can ski anything. The runs are short, the lifts are often surface lifts (t bars and pomas), and it rains a LOT! But we love it.

Mt Twynam from Guthega (Twynam is Australia's 3rd highest mountain) with young snowgums.	Skiing down to our lodge at Guthega for lunch.	Skiing back to Guthega a bit late one evening, got this sunset over the Main Range.

The big difference I notice is the trees, however. We don't have conifers growing in the high country (unless you count the mountain plum pines which crawl over rocks); we have Snow Gums, Eucalyptus Pauciflora. These gum trees grow in "mallee form", which means multiple trunks for one tree. They sometimes resemble stems of broccoli.

	The snowgums turn pinky-red in autumn, as it gets colder, and the bark of the trees can look like python skins, with streaks of cream, white, green, grey, pink and red. The trees suffer from extremes of wind and cold, and are often tortured into twisted sculptures, especially the old ones, gnarled and fat.
Spring on Mt Tate. Following leads of snow up to where the cover was good.		Tree Art

Wise's Wilderness is a stunning collection of the best photos I've seen of the snow country, plus other shots of Australia. There is so much there, maybe select a slide show and sit back and enjoy it! Or just search through the galleries. Geoff Wise updates it regularly, and sells copies of photos if people want them. One of my favourite websites.

Ski.com.au is the premier commercial snow website for Australia. They own many of the snowcams at the resorts, plus they link to other snowcams. They have the most active discussion forums too. There is quite a social network of snow riders stemming from this website, there is one official get-together annually, plus many other events organised by the forum members. A great place to find info, ask questions or chat.

Snowsafe is about Alpine safety, it is run by the various rescue bodies and parks people, and contains much excellent info about the alpine environment, and how you can deal with it (clothing, car info, kids, equipment, weather and more). I must-read for anyone visiting the high country.

Snowbizz I ski Stockli skis, and this is the site of Fred, the Australian importer. Here you can find out about the skis, and where you can get a pair! I've never skiied anything better than Stockli and every time I enjoy demoing another brand, I still reckon the skis in my ski-rack are better.

Australian Alps This is the site of the Alps national park, and has lots of excellent info, tips for camping and other park use, and great pictures.

Ciau This site has useful links and info, but my favourite bit is the galleries of Aussie professional snow photographers at www.ciau.com.au/gallery/index.htm

Weather
Scratch an Australian skiier and find a weather nut, the only mob who compete with us in this regard are the surfers. There are lots of good weather sites, but the best for skiiers are:

Australian Weather News which has a snow section (labelled "severe weather"!). It has plenty of good info about snow in Australian, plus links if you want more.

Frog's Site Frog has made quite a name for himself in the snow scene with his great track record in calling snowfalls quite a long way out.